The Devil You Know
by Adara's Rose
Summary: This story chronicles what would have happened had Percy Weasley never made a deal with the devil. This is what happens if you chose the devil you know.
1. WARNING

STOP!

READ THIS FIRST!

Before you go any further, PLEASE understand that you are stepping into hell. I mean literal hell. My best reader was so horrified by the events of part 3 that she refused to finish reading. And she reads EVERYTHING I write. She cried, cursed me, and refused to read another line.

Please, for the love of whatever you believe in, DO NOT read any further if the following trigger you in ANY WAY:

Sexual Slavery - Stockholm Syndrome - Child Abuse - Sexual Abuse - - Parent/Child Incest - Emotional/Psychological Abuse - Child Murder - Infanticide

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, OKAY?

For pity's sake, don't say I didn't warn you.

Love,

AdaraRose


	2. 1

_(Still here? OK. Let us descend.)_

* * *

It is the first summer holiday after you have graduated from Hogwarts, and as you make yourself ready to go to work you have no idea that in a few hours your life will have changed for ever. Life as you know it will be over, and something else will begin. Something that is not quite life, but what other word is there?

You see the Devil on the corner of the street, about two minutes away from the entrance to the Ministry, and though you do not want to you go to him. How can you not? He owns more of you than you do yourself. In truth, you are not quite sure who you are without him, this monster that ripped you apart and redefined you.

His arm around your waist is possessive, and so is his mouth as it presses too harshly against yours. But you make no protest; it is futile to protest and usually only gets you a punch to the ribs or something along those lines.

When he pulls you into the dark alley, you come willingly, not sparing a thought to being late to the office or what your boss will say. The Devil wants you, and you have never had the right to say no.

He takes you to his house, and you marvel at how ordinary it is where it lies on a normal street in a normal suburb, just another little two-story house amongst hundreds. You count the little blue dots on the bedroom wall while he rapes you, wondering if he chose the wallpaper himself or if it was there when he moved in. After, when you are wet with blood and semen, the mix of it dripping down your thighs, he shows you the basement.

It is a normal basement, but with an addition which significance has not yet become clear to you: a heavy metal door in the far corner. The Devil opens the door and beyond it you see a small room with a table, two chairs, a small stove and a countertop. There is a tap on the wall for water and a rickety bookcase with a few books. That is all you can see from where you are standing; you are going to find out that there is also a small bathroom with a shower that never gets more than lukewarm, and two bedrooms. One with a big double bed, one with two small beds. For the children. He has planned this, you see.

He tells you to go inside and you do not even think about disobedience, but do what you're told. It is so ingrained in you to obey him that anything else is so impossible it does not exist.

It is not until the metal door clangs shut behind you that you realise that this is meant to be your prison.

* * *

You give birth to your first baby a few months later, although at that time you have lost all track of time and you only know the days by the small grate opening by the far wall. You know you are expected to stand under it to let the sunshine fall on your skin, and you do so everyday to avoid the beating that you get otherwise.

He visits most days, and wants what he calls his "husbandly rights". That is what you are expected to call him, too - husband. And you obey. You kiss him, and hold him, and smile at him and moan as if you enjoy it when he ruts between your legs. You wonder if anyone wonders where you are.

The baby lies in your arms, bloody and wailing in the stillness and silence of your prison, and you marvel at his beauty. The pain and fear of labouring alone is worth it as he looks at you with his pretty blue eyes, and in that moment he is your whole world. You name him Benjamin, for he brings you joy.

You count every day you get to breathe in his scent and watch Husband coo at his son, and therefore you know that Benjamin is forty-six days old when you find him cold and dead in his crib.

You scream until your voice is gone.

You spend another two days crying.


	3. 2

_(_ _I have tissues if you need them.)_

* * *

You lose count of time after Benjamin dies; you have come to realise that time does not matter in this darkness behind the metal door, the darkness that has become your entire world.

You only know that there are times when Husband is there, when he wants his rights and you endure and think of how Benjamin smiled at you when you lifted him from his crib. You wonder if there will be another baby, and how many days you will get to hold it.

The air from the ceiling vent is warm the day Husband confirms that you are pregnant again, and he kisses you and calls you his sweet love and tells you he is so happy. He loves you very much, he says, and you feel thankful that he loves you. He has shown you how worthless you are, nothing but a whore, and yet he loves you. Loves you enough to take you for his own and let you call him Husband, let you carry his children.

He is everything you have, everything that matters, and you will give him anything he wants whenever he wants it. There is nothing else that matters in the dark.

* * *

The baby, you see as it lies shrieking and squalling between your blood-smeared legs, is a girl. You think she is perfection. You name her Abigail, for she brings you as much happiness as Benjamin did, and you cannot wait to show her to Husband. Surely, he will love her and see that she is perfect, that you have managed to give him something worthy of him.

So when Husband comes to visit and you limp to meet him with Abigail at your breast, the look on his face takes you by complete surprise. He takes Abigail from your arms and sneers A girl? With what almost sounds like disgust. You do not understand why; she has sprung from his seed, surely she cannot be anything but perfect? But Husband doesn't think so as he raises the baby high over his head and throws it down straight into the concrete floor. There is a sickening crack as Abigail's little head collides with the floor and there is the smell of blood. Husband's heavy boot slams down on the tiny head, all the while looking at you with fury and triumph. You stand frozen, mute, too horrified to cry.

"Clean that up" he orders as he turns and walks out the metal door, tracks of blood being made on the floor.

You sink to your knees and lifts the mangled remains of your baby into your arms and silently swear to Husband that you will never birth him another girl.

He doesn't want girls.

* * *

When Aiden is born, many warm and cold days after Abigail, you are petrified that he will stop breathing like Benjamin did. But he doesn't. He cries and laughs and pees and waves his little arms at you and you love him so much you feel as if your heart is going to break. Not as much as you love Husband, of course, but still. Like your heart is breaking. His eyes are a brilliant blue, like Husbands, and you pray that they will never be cold.

Husband is pleased when you show him Aiden; he holds you and kisses you and whispers "well done, my sweet boy" and you finally allow yourself to be happy about the baby.

* * *

There are other babies of course, as the days pass uncounted. Myfanwy, whom you strangle with the umbilical cord so that Husband will not do to her what he did with Abigail. Simon, who has dark hair like husband, not red like yours and Aiden's, and whom Husband drowns in the bath for the insolence. Brett, who looks like you with blue eyes and red hair and gains Husband's approval. There are other babies too, but they don't come out from between your legs alive and you are grateful. You weren't sure if they were going to be red headed boys.

While there are babies, both dead and alive, Aiden and Brett grow. They start talking, crawling, walking. Asking questions about the world and you show them, and teach them about obeying Husband. How that is the only thing that matters. Brett takes his lessons well, but Aiden does not and when he gets bigger he asks his father the questions you cannot answer. He wants to know what lies beyond the door and above the grate, and you do not remember. Perhaps you have made yourself forget. Husband beats him so badly you think he is going to die, and finally you cry and plead with Husband to take his rage out on you instead, and he takes you to bed and takes his rights over and over again until you are bleeding. Then he beats you until you lie in a stupor, not knowing if you are alive or dead.

Aiden never asks any questions again.

* * *

You are not sure how old Aiden is the first time Husband takes him into the room with the big bed, but you can hear the noises you know from you giving him his husbandly rights and Aiden screaming. You vaguely remember another boy about the same size crying on another floor, but this is the world now and there is nothing you can do. So you wait, and soothe Brett and Eric as they cry from and give John his bottle. You hope that Aiden learns to please his Father quickly, so that there will be no more beatings. Once Husband has left, you sit on the edge of the bed and croon nonsense songs as Aiden cries.

You never talk about it, even though Husband more and more wants to have his rights from Aiden instead of you. You just wipe Aiden's tears and tells him to be a good boy and do what he is told, remind him that the child of a whore is a whore himself by birth, no matter how fine the seed that sired him. Aiden listens and remembers, and the next time Father comes and takes him to the big bed, he parts his legs like you, his Daddy, told him to, closes his eyes and remembers that you will hold him after and sing him to sleep. It makes it endurable, even though each brutal thrust hurts all the way inside. The first time Husband takes Brett to the big bed, Aiden holds his hands over John's ears while you sing to Eric, distracting the child from his brothers screams. They will end eventually, anyways, and then you will make dinner. This is how it has to be. This is what the world is. This is how it always will be.


	4. 3

_(No, it will not get better. In fact, it's about to get worse.)_

* * *

Husband likes to have his friends over, and you are not sure if you like those times or not. It is always dark when they come over, and Husband brings you up from the little world you have with your children and into the big house above, the house you make yourself forget after each time. There aren't many of them, four or five, one time there were seven, but they all know what you are and what they can do with you. Sometimes they make you take two or even three at a time, rutting on top of or behind you like ravenous beasts, grunting their pleasure as they take and take and take. After, before Husband brings you down to the children, he beats you for being such a cheap, filthy whore. Then he lies on top of you, reminding you who you belong to. He is the only one allowed to rut with you without using protection. That way he can be sure that the children are his. 

* * *

Aiden has his first baby on a day when the wind from the grate had been cold as you stood beneath it, holding your children close so that they all would feel the sunlight on their faces. They do not know what the sun is, but Father has said that they are to let it shine on them so they do. While you stand there and feel the sun on your face, you hear Aiden cry and scream as he labours alone in the big bed. After the grate has closed you go to him and help him, the way no one ever helped you. The baby is a girl, and Aiden watches silently as you press your hand over her tiny mouth and nose until she stops moving. You do not tell him about Abigail and he does not ask.

You give the dead baby to Husband who looks at it with disgust before leaving. You do not know what he does with the body and it does not matter, for he cannot hurt her anyways now that she is not alive anymore. You hold Aiden and he whispers that her name is Lucy, like in the book on the shelf. The one with the lion on it. You never talk about her again.

The next time Aiden has a baby it comes out dead, blue in the face and too small for a baby to live. You are relieved, but Aiden cries over the little body until you worry he will make himself sick. Finally you take the baby away from him and hides it in a cupboard until Husband arrives and you can be rid of it.

Aiden screams for Kathleen for two days.

* * *

The third time Aiden has a baby growing in him, he gets sick. Very sick, the way none of the children have ever been before. After days of feverish mumblings and sobs you finally beg Husband to take Aiden to the hospital. At first Husband refuses, even when you use all your marital skills on him until he is exhausted and more satisfied than he has been since… since the world began, probably. You can't remember. You must not remember. Finally he offers you a bargain.

One of his friends, the one who likes to beat you while he ruts with you, wants to have Brett for his own sweet boy. You have been managing to keep this from happening so far, but now Husband is giving you an ultimatum. Let me give Brett to my friend, and I will take Aiden to the hospital. You cry as you give your child to a monster in order to save his brother.

You will never see Brett again. Neither will your other children.


	5. 4

(Breathe. Cry. Scream. Plot different ways to have me murdered.

It's almost over.) 

* * *

Husband takes Aiden to the hospital, and you do not know what happens there. You also do not know that you will never see Aiden again. But what happens, is that Aiden whispers to the nurse examining his extended belly that the man who he calls Husband is really his Father. He tells about how the world is darkness and Daddy and his three brothers. The nurse cries and fetches a very nice doctor with dark skin, almost as dark as the world, and Aiden tells him to. Then many things happen at once; another doctor comes in to wave a stick at Aiden's belly to heal the internal damage from Kathleen's birth and the nice dark-skinned doctor goes to tell Father that Aiden has to stay for observation, whatever that means.

When the doctor gets to the waiting room, Father is gone. The doctor immediately contacts the Aurors to track him down, but once they do they will be too late. For Father has realised that he has been found out and hurried home, to where you are waiting with the two children you have left.

He enters your little world looking frightened, and he takes you in his arms with a gentleness you hardly ever see from him. He kisses you in a way that hurts, for it is gentle and affectionate and nothing frightens you more than when he is gentle. Then he tells you that the world must end, and he asks how much you love him. You tell him you love him with your whole heart, even though there is not much left of it. He kisses you again, and then hands you three white pills and tells you to prove that you love him.

You know what he means, for he has talked about this before, when there was Brett and Aiden had not had any babies yet. You take Eric and John in your arms and hold them close, forcing yourself not to let them see you cry. Husband kisses you one last time and leaves, and you know that he will never come back. But that is alright, for the world is ending.

You tuck the boys into their bed, the bed they share while Aiden sleeps in the other. You put a pill in Eric's mouth, balancing it against his little white teeth, and press his jaws together hard even as he struggles. John watches, thumb in mouth, as Eric shudders twice and then lies still. Then you turn to John, and tells him to be Good for you. And John adores you, so he obeys. Always obedient, just like you. He is a good boy, your sweet little John, and you place the pill in his mouth, letting it rest against the four teeth he has like little grains of rice in his mouth. You press his jaws together hard until you hear the pill break, watching through your tears as John shudders like his brother did before the poison takes him. You finally let your cry for the end of your world as you curl up in Aiden's bed and puts the third pill in your mouth. The poison is bitter on your tongue and you are grateful, for you will see your boys soon. You hope that Husband has given Brett a pill too, but you do not think so. 

* * *

Later, in the hospital, an Auror with nice green eyes is asking carefully worded questions and Aiden does his best to answer them. The auror does not tell the pregnant boy what they found when they broke down the metal door, or that his Father was hanging from the hallway banister. There will be no retribution or justice for you or John or Eric or Brett or Aiden, for the world has ended and Aiden is all alone. But the auror, who says his name is Harry, tells Aiden about his aunt - the auror's wife - and uncles and his grandmother and grandfather, and how they never stopped waiting for you to come home. How your grandmother has cried every day as she has looked at the hand on the clock bearing your name. Cursed it for its lie, when it has stubbornly pointed to "at home". Aiden wonders what a grandmother is.

They tell him that the baby is okay now, and Aiden cries and prays that it will be a little boy with red hair. When Harry the auror asks him why, Aiden tells about Abigail and Myfanwy and Lucy and Kathleen, and Simon who had dark hair.

Harry the auror cries where he sits by the bedside and he shows a picture of his children, saying over and over again that it is not true that only red headed boys get to live. That all children get to live. And Aiden smiles and thinks that it is a lie.

The auror's wife cries, too, when she sees Aiden and he marvels at her having hair the same colour as his. She tells him that your name is Percy and you are her brother and she loved you very much, and that she is so sorry she never helped you. She says that a lot, that she is sorry, and Aiden wonders why. She was not a part of your world.

Your mother holds Aiden in her arms as if he is something precious, and he is. He is her only remaining link to you. Your father cries and holds his hand and promises that it is going to be alright now and Aiden wonders what was wrong in the first place.

It is a cold spring morning when Aiden gives birth to the baby Husband put in him.

It is a girl with a thin covering of brown hair all over her head.

He names her Eve, for she is the first to live.

Fin. 

* * *

_(Well done, you! You made it! You survived!) (This is where you click the 'review' button_

 _and tell me how much you hate me_

 _for making you suffer through this.)_


End file.
